Espinoza, Government Funding, and Religious Choice

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, holding that religious schools cannot be excluded from a state program of financial aid to private schools, is another incremental step in the Court's long-running project to reform the constitutional law of fi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of law and religion
Authors: Berg, Thomas C. 1960- (Author) ; Laycock, Douglas (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Cambridge Univ. Press [2020]
In: Journal of law and religion
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B USA / Denominational school / Public funding / Religious freedom / Jurisdiction
RelBib Classification:AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
KBQ North America
XA Law
Further subjects:B Religious schools
B school vouchers
B formal neutrality
B government funding of religion
B substantive neutrality
B category neutrality
B neutrality toward religion
B free exercise of religion
B religious exemptions
B neutral incentives
B Establishment of religion
B neutral categories
B religious choices
B incentive neutrality
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Summary:The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, holding that religious schools cannot be excluded from a state program of financial aid to private schools, is another incremental step in the Court's long-running project to reform the constitutional law of financial aid to religious institutions. There was nothing surprising about the decision, and it changed little; it was the inevitable next link in a long chain of decisions. To those observers still attached to the most expansive rhetoric of no-aid separationism, it is the world turned upside down. But the Court has been steadily marching away from that rhetoric for thirty-five years now. The more recent decisions, including Espinoza, do a far better job than no-aid separationism of separating the religious choices and commitments of the American people from the coercive power of the government. And that is the separation that is and should be the ultimate concern of the Religion Clauses - to minimize the government's interference with or influence on religion, and to leave each American free to exercise or reject religion in his or her own way, neither encouraged by the government nor discouraged or penalized by the government.
ISSN:2163-3088
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of law and religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1017/jlr.2020.40